Norton uses local visit to urge volunteerism.

Byline: Joe Harwood The Register-Guard

COBURG - Interior Secretary Gale Norton stopped in Oregon on Thursday to tour the Monaco Coach Corp. motor home factory, and called on more Americans to volunteer to help improve the nation's parks, forests and other recreation areas.

But her statements drew criticism from conservation advocates, who said Norton was trying to paper over the Bush administration's shoddy environmental and national park stewardship.

Norton, one of a string of Cabinet secretaries to visit the Northwest this summer to tout the administration's accomplishments in the past 3 1/2 years, is pitching the U.S. Department of Interior's "Take Pride in America" initiative.

The program aims to recognize volunteers who work to improve the country's public parks, wildlife refuges and historic sites such as Crater Lake National Park and Fort Clatsop in Oregon.

"We're trying to get people motivated to care for public lands," Norton said, adding that about 200,000 citizens now volunteer in various capacities. "We'd like to double that," she said.

Monaco, the nation's top manufacturer of diesel-powered luxury motor homes, was chosen as host because the $1 billion company is a charter member of the volunteer initiative, promoting the program with dollars as well as a public awareness campaign that includes placing "Take Pride in America" bumper stickers on its motor homes.

"It's an opportunity for the people who use our public lands - the recreational vehicle folks, for example - to give back some so they're involved in helping the places they care about," Norton said.

The stop at Monaco also is a reward for the company's chairman and CEO, Kay Toolson, who has been a big supporter of Republican causes over the years. Since 2000, Toolson and his wife have given more than $48,000 to GOP politicians and to organizations such as the Republican National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records.

This year alone, Toolson has donated $12,500 to the Republican Party of Oregon and $3,000 to the Republican National Committee.

Norton insisted that her Oregon visit was not political, but she praised President Bush's efforts to improve the economy, create jobs and provide more funding for parks and public land.

One of the primary goals of the volunteer initiative is "to get kids to recognize that the public lands are their responsibility," Norton said. `Our theme is `It's your land, lend a hand.' '

But many conservation and national park advocacy groups have blasted the administration's record on environmental protection and the level of service at many recreation spots.

At $1.8 billion, the National Park Service budget for fiscal 2004 has more funds per employee, per acre and per visitor than ever, Norton said Thursday. "We've been adding tens of millions of dollars to park funding every year," she added.

But critics accuse Norton of using fuzzy math for blatantly political purposes.

"Bush made a pledge in 2000 to repair and renew parks, but we've seen just the opposite," said Heather Weiner, Northwest regional director for the Washington, D.C.-based National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan watchdog group formed in 1919 by the first director of the National Park Service. The group is now headed by Republican Tom Kiernan, a political appointee during the administration of George H.W. Bush, the father of President George W. Bush.

"We've seen the outsourcing of park rangers, weakened environmental protections and a net decrease in the national park budget" when inflation is taken into account, Weiner said. "People who visit the parks are furious."

She points to the Olympic National Park in Washington state, which in 2001 boasted 206 full-time employees and last year had only 182, a 12 percent reduction.

Weiner said funding woes also have cut the number of seasonal rangers hired each summer at Olympic. In 2001, the park hired 130. This summer, fewer than 25 seasonal rangers were brought on, she said. Compared with 1980 levels, the number of seasonal rangers hired across the country last year was down 76 percent, Weiner's group says.

The budget-cutting criticisms gained traction last March when Interior Department memos ordering park superintendents to make far-reaching cuts in personnel and services were leaked to the media. The federal documents also instructed park officials to avoid telling the public and media about the reductions.

As for the "Take Pride in America" initiative, Weiner said her group supports the idea, but is wary of an administration trend that appears to be replacing professional staff with volunteers.

"The way it stands now, Crater Lake, Mount Rainier, Fort Vancouver and Fort Clatsop would not be able to stay open if it weren't for volunteers," Weiner said.

The Interior Department manages about 1 in every 5 acres of land in the nation, including 388 national park units and 544 wildlife refuges.

After the Monaco visit, Norton boarded one of the company's $450,000 motor homes for a trip to Redmond, where she addressed the 6,000-member Family Motor Coach Association's annual convention.

CAPTION(S):

Interior Secretary Gale Norton meets employee Curt VanBurkleo (left) during a tour of the Monaco Coach factory by CEO Kay Toolson (center). Paul Carter / The Register-Guard Interior Secretary Gale Norton, speaking to employees at Monaco in Coburg, calls on more Americans to volunteer to help improve the nation's parks, forests and other recreation areas.